NARUMI KUROSAKI: THE SEARCH FOR HER REMAINS IS COMING TO AN END
L'Est Républicain
Affaire Narumi : les recherches du corps touchent à leur fin
A year and a half after her disappearance, Narumi Kurosaki's body has still not been found. The search for her remains was relaunched at the end of 2017 and has been completed. Chile, on the other hand, lifted the ban on the suspect from leaving the country. "This poses no difficulty," the Besançon parquet reassures.
The perfect crime? Some ask themselves the question, but for the Besançon public prosecutor's office as for the investigators of the judicial police, the reality of this case is quite different: however brilliant he may be, Nicolás Zepeda would have committed errors and left in his wake a series of evidence against him.
The young man is suspected of having murdered Narumi Kurosaki, his 21-year-old ex-girlfriend, in a room on the campus of Besançon on the night of 4 to 5 December 2016. The students who were there that night said that they heard a scream, chilling, without anyone seeing anything in the corridors. By the time Narumi's disappearance was reported and the police investigation began, Nicolás Zepeda was already far away. He fled to Chile. His homeland. From there, he denies any involvement.
A year and a half after the events, the body of the Japanese student remains untraceable. Police investigations identified large areas of forest where the Chilean reportedly went the day after Narumi disappeared. In particular, XXL searches had been carried out in the Loue valley and in the Chaux forest, in vain.
During a second stage, the exploitation of phone evidence had allowed to limit the search areas in the surroundings of Choisey (Jura). This time, the method of operation was different: since last November, with the occasional help of dogs specialized in the search for human remains, the police have meticulously searched the area. This field effort is now over, without any trace of Narumi having been detected. Only a few aquatic areas remain to be checked.
Getting rid of a body isn't that easy. It seems unlikely that Narumi was buried or burned. The only thing left is to immerse the remains in a pool, a river, a pond, with, perhaps, a means of weighing it down. For months, the diving firefighters have been mobilized in this direction, again in vain. Will the mystery of her location ever be solved?
The Chilean judiciary, for its part, lifted the ban on leaving the territory initially served to Nicolás Zepeda-Contreras, as the deadline had expired. But Damocles' main sword remains suspended above his head:
the international arrest warrant, which has the value of an indictment. As it stands, Narumi's alleged murderer cannot leave his native country without taking the risk of getting on a plane to Paris.
The Supreme Court of Chile does not have at its disposal the investigation conducted by the Judicial Police, and therefore the evidence accumulated against Nicolás Zepeda-Contreras. A complete extradition request will be sent by France in the coming months. Only then will we know. It will be known whether, even in the absence of a body, Chile will surrender its national to the French courts. And we will know whether or not Nicolás Zepeda-Contreras will be physically present to defend himself at his probable trial in the Criminal Court.
The relaunch of a second wave of investigations at the end of 2017 in the vicinity of Choisey had rekindled the hope of finding Narumi Kurosaki's body. After months of effort, the result is unfortunately not there, as Edwige Roux-Morizot, prosecutor of the Republic of Besançon, explains: "It is obviously a disappointment, for the judicial information of course, but especially for Narumi's family. Because they still have this uncertainty, which is human. It is very complicated for parents to accept the loss of a child, even more so in the absence of a body."
Chile's lifting of the ban on leaving the country does not worry the judge at all, for whom "it poses no difficulty." Edwige Morizot elaborates: "In reality, this is the expiry of the time limit for this measure, which was taken as a precautionary measure in view of our extradition request. But nothing has changed, it has no impact, the international arrest warrant is still valid. This extradition request will be transmitted in due course, following judicial information." When all the investigative acts are closed. For the record, a request for extradition may be made only once. Hence this strategy of waiting.
BBM
I happened upon this case while looking for info on another case. Did not believe my eyes when I read what had happened. This man Nicolás Zepeda-Contreras travels half the globe, from Chile to France, takes his former girlfriend out to dinner (Dec 4/5 2016), she disappears and he returns to Chile (Dec 7 2016)
Video with his threats here, he seems to think he owns her.